Complicated
by Alvfold
Summary: Everybody wishes things weren’t complicated, that evil was evil and good was good. Everybody wishes that there are no asterisks to consider. But there are and this is the story of a life made up of asterisks
1. Where it all began

Crash*

Lorenzo shot up with sweat dripping down his face and his heart beating like he just ran a marathon to see his mom standing in his door way." You're going to be late to school if you don't get up" still breathing hard he responded "alright I- I'm up" he quickly got dressed, and when he went to grab his phone he saw he had messages from his brother Erik telling him to wake up and to get to school on time.

Just as he got out of the door he immediately got hit by torrential rain so he ran back inside and grabbed a raincoat. While on the way to school he almost got hit by a car while he was trying to grab his phone because he was getting called by Erik, "Hey are you up?" "Yeah I'm on the way now" Lorenzo said slowing down from a run to a walk "Good, do you have everything you need?" "Umm… shit!" he said drawing the stare from a mom and her three kids that were stuck in early morning rush hour. He quickly apologized while his brother asked him who he was talking too. "Don't worry about it; I forgot my backpack at home." "Come on Lorenzo." "Sorry I didn't want mom to start screaming at me to hurry up." "Wha…alright, will you even need it today?" Nah its fine I got nothing going on today." "Luckily for you. And put down an alarm to remember your fucking backpack from now on." I will Erik. Love you." "Love you to man, now get to school" He heard as the school entered his vision

5 hours later

As Lorenzo walked into history he heard his project partner call out to him, what's up Collette he said and she asked him if he had his part of the project "Fuck…I'm so sorry Collette, I swear I did it but I forgot it in my backpack which I accidentally left at home" he'd done this numerous times this year and she finally lost it. "I'm not fucking surprised, you do this every time, you know the only reason I or anyone partners with you is because he, gesturing to Mr. Blackburn the history teacher, forces people!" when she was done with her rant both of them looked around suddenly remembering where they're at only to see the absolute bewilderment on Mr. Blackburn's face.

You could have heard a pin drop in that a classroom so hearing Lorenzo whisper sorry was easy. After he was finished yelling at her and sending her to the office, He began his class while Lorenzo sat at his seat and put his head down. He felt that leaving early would be an acceptable reaction, so in between presentations he asked if he could use the bathroom and walked out of the school.

The rain had stopped while Lorenzo was in school so as he walking home he slowed down to appreciate the weather, remembering to text his brother about leaving school early at school as he was walking into a convenience store to get a water bottle and candy with the money he was going to use for lunch he heard the clerk ask him why he was out of school, "got out for good behavior" he responded, getting out his wallet to pay, he looked up to see that a warehouse had blown up in the Sheldon Industrial Park area of the city.

He asked the clerk if he could turn it up and the clerk obliged. "Going to Marian who's at the scene Marian do you have an update?" The graphic switched to a professional looking woman with brown hair tied into a ponytail and designer glasses." Well Ron the police are telling everybody that this explosion was a the result of a gas leak however we received word from several reliable sources inside the police department that the security camera footage actually shows the vigilante batman running toward the warehouse seconds before it blew up, so the question now becomes is this the work of one of the batman's antagonists or truly just a gas leak, Marian Barclay reporting back to you Ron." The graphic than switched back to the studio With the anchorman "Thanks Marian, and now an update on the disappearance of Mayor Hady's brother Alan Hady."

Lorenzo than put his attention back to paying and then he heard the clerk ask "do you think it was him havin' one of his fight or ya think it was a gas leak kid?" I don't know responded Lorenzo, but the clerk didn't look satisfied with his answer, so he continued " I think that when we accepted batman as a force of good in this fucked up city there was always going to be escalation by the criminals but I don't think anyone expected the psychos that showed up, so the truth is I no longer know what to think." The clerk looked somewhat satisfied but not entirely so Lorenzo decided to get out of their before he could ask any more questions. He wasn't fast enough." You think it was a good idea letting him stay?" Lorenzo responded with what he thinks is probably the smartest thing he has ever said, "I don't know and unfortunately no one will know until it's all said and done, But I will say this the minute he showed up everything changed, because even if the police had gotten to him quickly there would've been someone else to replace him because when it comes down to it, we created him" he paused to calm himself down "whadaya mean?" the clerk asked with a confused look on his aged and cracked face, so he responded "Batman is just a product of our apathy, we allowed scumbags to take over the city and allowed them to do whatever they like to whomever they liked wherever and whenever they chose and batman is just someone who got tired of it, of the corruption and crime and decided to do something about it, something that police either weren't willing or able to do. That's what I mean." The clerk huffed "how old are you kid" Lorenzo then gave the clerk a suspicious look and responded "I'm 16, why?" "then you've gotta be the smartest 16 year old I've ever spoken too" so he responded " speak to many 16 year olds" paused for a second to watch the reaction of the clerk "see you later." he said, in between laughing attacks because of the complete surprise on the clerks face, then walked out of the store.

Just as he walked in the door he saw his brother responded asking him why he left early so he replied with the whole story, than he heard his phone ring, it was his brother, the first thing he heard was "did she really fucking say that to you!" he had to move his phone away from his ear because of how loudly Erik was screaming about how he will get that little "witch", at least that's what he thinks Erik was saying, kicked out of school finally when Erik stopped to take a breath Lorenzo responded "its fine man, I earned it, everything she said is true." He said somberly "I wish it wasn't but it is." "It doesn't matter whether it's true or not Loren" he really hated that nickname "or if you deserved it or not you don't say that shit to someone" now he really didn't know how to feel he was happy his brother cared so much but now he was also sad because what Collette said was true, yet he was also pissed because Erik was also right you don't say that shit to people and he personally had witnessed Collette and her meathead boyfriend humiliate numerous people and the school didn't do shit to stop them and the only reason it happened now was because it happened in the classroom of the only teacher who gave a shit, so right at that moment, at Lorenzo's boiling point, as he kept thinking he kept getting angrier and angrier until he cracked and decided he was going to do something about it since no one else would. "Loren…Loren, Loren you alright" suddenly coming out of his angry stupor remembering that he was on the phone he brought it back up to his ear and responded assuring his brother that he was fine and that he'd see him later despite his brothers protests he ended the call and dropped his phone on the sofa.

plopping down next to it, he closed his eyes to try to prevent the impending headache, when much to his chagrin someone started talking to him "what's wrong Loren?" the voice asked with obvious sincerity "Nothing dad, and can we stop with the Loren." "you want me to stop, sure no problem, but I have a feeling your mother and sister will be much harder to convince, and I know when something is wrong with my son so why don't you open your eyes and tell me" with that he opened his eyes and took in the person standing before him.

a man standing a modest 5'10, 5'11 at most or 6'0 if you believe his lies, with a patchy goatee and hair beginning to turn from its original black color to gray and dark brown eyes. If you took a longer moment to take in his features you'd see the slight bags under his eyes, the scrapes on his hands indicating manual labor of some sort, the messed up teeth in his mouth yet the warm and inviting smile that came with the teeth, you'd see the tired in his eyes and hear the tired in his voice that came with working a second job to support his family, yet he'd give the shirt off his back for a complete stranger and give his ear for anyone willing to talk. People would always ask him why he was so kind and he always gave the same answer "because when I'm at my lowest I'd want someone to help me, even if it was nothing more than listening to my problems".

"Just some dumbass person at school dad, you don't even need to worry." Do I need to go down there and speak with the administrators" Truthfully Lorenzo didn't even think the admins even remembered they worked at a school cause he only ever saw one of the assistant principals out of the four that supposedly worked, one for every grade. "No its fine dad I'll handle it". "Whatever you say Loren." With that Lorenzo drifted off and went to sleep


	2. The Demons Within

Lorenzo

"_Lorenzo you ok?"_

"_Lorenzo you need to wake up!"_

"_PLEASE, LORENZO YOU GOTTA GET UP!"_

Lorenzo shot up drenched in sweat, hearing keys jingling in the door to the condo, quickly running into his room so his brother wouldn't see him drenched in sweat, and get worried again. "Loren you up?" he heard his brother call out as he was changing his drenched shirt "yeah man, what's up?" he asked as nonchalantly as he could betraying his ever increasing heartbeat still reeling from the dream and getting increasingly more nervous talking to his brother.

"Nothing just wondering what you were up to, figured I'd see you passed out on the couch as usual" "nah I just took a shower" Lorenzo quickly decided he stick with that story not thinking of the obvious holes in his story. Then he heard the bathroom door open and close a couple seconds later only for the footsteps to continue in front of the door to his room till they stopped and he heard a soft knock on his door. "Loren open the door please, I know you didn't shower, please open the door and tell me what's going on." Lorenzo was on the edge again, but not the edge of anger, this time he was on the verge of breaking down in tears. He hated how he was so god damn fragile and how fickle his mind is, from just a few hours ago being on the edge of a rage abyss to now having a crisis trying to hide what happened from his brother, one of the only people on this entire planet who gave a shit about him.

_Come on Lorenzo, pull yourself together, now take a deep breath and go open the door._

_No, run Lorenzo, we can't let him see us like this anymore. He'll stop loving us after seeing what a mess we are._

_HE WILL NEVER STOP LOVING US, SHUT UP! Lorenzo don't listen to that garbage Erik loves us unconditionally._

_He says that but words mean nothing, people make promises all the time that that they can't follow through on, if we stay here this will only end in disappointment and pain for both of us. After all you can only love someone so much before you break._

While Lorenzo was having this debate in his head Erik's voice changed from calm to begging Lorenzo to open the door"Loren please open the door, I swear I'm not mad I only want to help."He then remembered the points brought up in his head and made a decision. Erik heard the window open and started panicking pounding on the door and begging his brother to open the door.

Lorenzo froze for a second when he heard the desperation is his brother's voice but then made a decision to protect Erik and himself. Lorenzo needed to leave for the night to pull himself together and standing in the window sill with one foot inside and the other on the fire escape he made a promise "I'll be back in the morning Erik I promise" believing that would help his taper his brothers panic a bit when in reality it only increased his desperation to get in the room. Now slamming his shoulder into the door to try to get to his brother before he could leave "Loren don't go out the fucking window please! This Fucking hell hole of a city is dangerous at night! Why are you doing this I just want to talk?!" "I'll be fine Erik I'm doing this for us" and quieter so Erik couldn't hear him "I'm doing this so you won't hate me, I love you. See you later." Then he stepped out of the window and walked down the fire escape not waiting for a response.

Walking around in Gotham during the night was odd compared to where he used to live, instead of people being out having fun in the bar or whatever else they did, but in Gotham nobody looked like they were out to have fun. Everybody was either constantly mean mugging or kept a neutral almost apathetic look on their face. But Lorenzo didn't think they were apathetic at all mainly because of how they paid no mind to the street instead choosing to stare at the roof tops. He knows what they're looking for.

Erik

Erik didn't know where to look for Loren, it's not as if Loren left the house or really had any actual friends he could go spend the night with. He didn't know where to start looking and as he kept thinking his anxiety, fear and sadness continued to rise. He could feel the need creeping back in with every passing second, and before he even realized he was back in that shithole of a bar near Arkham he always went too. The last thing he remembered was running into Andre, an old friend and high ranking member of The Bowery Lords.

The Bowery Lords were a relatively new gang in Gotham, only showing up a few years ago. Erik was a early member, working with them a few months after they set up themselves. To be honest it surprised Erik that they managed to remain operational with the powers that were in Gotham, from Batman to the Falcone crime family there was little room for error and he knows for a fact that the "Lords" have gotten shut down on multiple occasions from the various powers in the city; and see as they were pretty much nothing more than a basic street gang he was very curious as to how they stayed in the city and stayed in business.

Erik was somewhat of an associate of theirs or at least he used to be during the "dark times" as he called it. He didn't participate in anything heavy, like something that could put him in prison for life heavy, he's not a good person at least in his mind. Not only because of how quickly he allowed his demons to take control and drag him back to this shithole, but also when he remembers dealing drugs or stealing cars or even the couple beatings he dealt he doesn't feel guilt and not because of some shit excuse like he was doing it for Lorenzo because he didn't, not deep down.


	3. Update

I've decided to take down chapter 3 and replace it with this until I'm done with the new one. I did this mainly due to unhappiness with the way it turned out and how it portrays characters in ways that I didn't want it to. Other than that I want to say thanks to the people who took the time to read this and I also appreciate all the reviews on how to improve. Stay safe and have a nice day


End file.
